


now that i found you

by lotts (LottieAnna)



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 07:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18442079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LottieAnna/pseuds/lotts
Summary: It’s just a bunch of moments, really. Mitch smiling his weird, goofy smile, followed by Auston smiling his amazing, goofy smile. A bunch of shots of Mitch’s back that Auston had probably thought he was being sneaky about at the time, even though Mitch had totally noticed. Some footage of them in the gym, some more of them on the ice, Auston’s phone being knocked off the goal and Mitch going to check that it didn’t break.They're nice moments. It's a nice thing.





	now that i found you

**Author's Note:**

> IF YOU FOUND THIS THROUGH GOOGLING, KNOW ANYONE MENTIONED IN THIS STORY PERSONALLY, OR ARE MENTIONED YOURSELF: please, please click away. This is a work of fiction and nothing written in this story is true. Any accurate information used in this story is publicly available information about public figures, the rest is made up, 100%.
> 
> me, mitch/auston, and a crj fic title? groundbreaking.
> 
> [in case you haven't seen this yet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDJAyJG3yGM)

It’s a cute commercial, all things considered. 

Mitch watches it with Auston when it premieres, mostly because they’re watching TV, and it happens to come on. They’ve both been in commercials before, so it’s not like this one is a particularly big deal, except for the fact that it’s both of them, and Mitch likes seeing their names side by side—  _ Mitch Marner, shot by Auston Matthews,  _ right in the middle of their actual television screen, and not for hockey reasons. 

It’s just a bunch of moments, really. Mitch smiling his weird, goofy smile, followed by Auston smiling his amazing, goofy smile. A bunch of shots of Mitch’s back that Auston had probably thought he was being sneaky about at the time, even though Mitch had totally noticed. Some footage of them in the gym, some more of them on the ice, Auston’s phone being knocked off the goal and Mitch going to check that it didn’t break.

They're nice moments. It's a nice thing. 

“That was really great, dude,” Mitch says, turning to Auston, except Auston’s— 

He’s not where Mitch expects him to be, actually. Like, he’s still there next to him, but he’s not on the couch, but, like… on the floor in front of it? Facing him? 

He’s not sitting, Mitch realizes. He took a knee, for some reason. 

Wait. No. That’s not what this is called here. 

“What’s going on,” Mitch says, blinking a few times.

“I, uh.” Auston clears his throat. “I’m not good with words. You know that. But, like— I think the video said all the things I wanted it to, I guess.” 

“What things?” Mitch is not shaking, he’s not, except he totally fucking is, and Auston’s got his huge hands wrapped around Mitch’s left fingers, and— what. 

“I like spending time with you,” Auston says. “Your smile is— like, really great, and being with you is pretty much the best thing ever, and— we’ve talked about this. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, right?” 

They have talked about this. They’ve fought about it, even. Auston thinks the pinnacle of romance is flying by the seat of your pants and waiting for the right moment, and Mitch thinks that can be nice, but in practice, it sometimes makes him feel like Auston can’t be bothered to make time for him. It’s an argument they used to have a lot, until Sparksy introduced them to the concept of Love Languages and they both realized that they should probably just meet each other halfway. 

The fights tapered off after that, but they’re not perfect people, so they still happen from time to time, and then the topic of proposing had come up, so. 

“Right,” Mitch says. “Me too.” 

Auston gives him a small, nervous half-smile. “Why do you sound so surprised?” 

“I just— I wasn’t expecting it,” Mitch says honestly. 

Auston cocks an eyebrow at him. “Didn’t we say we’d do it before the playoffs?” 

That had been before they fought about the mechanics of proposing—which sounds like a much stupider argument now than it had at the time—but. “I didn’t think you meant  _ two days _ before.”

“You knew I was making a commercial, and that I took a bunch of videos of us on dates— did you for real not see this coming?” 

In retrospect, Mitch maybe should’ve suspected, but, in his defense, Auston’s super into all sorts of artsy hipster crap that Mitch will never really get, and Mitch has accepted this. It’s not like Auston’s going to art galleries or whatever, just— he takes lots of pictures of random graffiti, has a bunch of photo editing apps that he uses even when he’s not planning an Insta post or anything. If there’s a sunset, and the two of them are crossing the street, there’s no question that they’ll end up having to book it to get to the other side, because Auston will invariably stop halfway across, phone in hand, squinting as he tries to center the yellow lines perfectly within the frame. 

“Not really,” Mitch says. 

“Well,” Auston says, reaching into the pocket of his hoodie, “I tried to make that video its own sort of… love letter, I guess.” 

“Oh,” Mitch says, feeling about a thousand things at once. “It worked.” 

“Are you crying?” 

“Fuck you,” Mitch says, because he totally is, a little, but Auston is too. “I can’t believe you planned this.” 

“I mean.” Auston shrugs. “I’m not into the jumbotron messages and stuff, but, y’know. I’m pretty into you, right? Might as well tell the world.” 

And that’s it, right? The meeting halfway thing, the thing that love needs to turn into something permanent, something real. It’s harder than it should be, hearing someone wants something that you haven’t been giving them and not dwelling on the accusation. Talking about communication is a lot easier than actually communicating. They’ve been working on it. 

Auston thinks public proposals are dumb and cheesy, and he also thinks that they put a lot of pressure on people, which is fine. Mitch thinks they’re romantic as hell, and apparently, Auston doesn’t think that’s dumb, which is maybe what Mitch had been worried about, because… well. That’s always what Mitch is worried about, the same way Auston’s always worried that Mitch is trying to fit their relationship into someone else’s idea of what their relationship should look like from the outside, and the way they’re both worried that no one takes their relationship seriously.

They both have their baggage, is the point. 

But. They make it work. 

“Yes,” Mitch says. “I— I do? Is that what I say here?” 

“I think that’s later,” Auston says, wiping under his eyes with the hand that’s holding a small velvet box. “Like, at the altar? Or at least after I’ve asked.” 

“Oh, right,” Mitch says, and they both sort of try to laugh. It’s hard, with all the feelings and crying and shit. 

Auston takes a deep breath, then says, “Please marry me,” in this ridiculously sincere voice. 

God, he says  _ please.  _ Like he’s asking Mitch to do him a favor, or something. Like he’s not offering Mitch everything he’s ever wanted. Like he’s not the actual love of his life. 

“Of course,” Mitch says, and eventually, Auston’s gonna open that box and put the ring on his finger, probably, but for now, all he can really do is smile so wide his cheeks hurt as tears dry on them. He’s probably gonna start crying again in a few minutes, actually, but— whatever. It’s a nice moment right now, because he’s in love with Auston and going to spend the rest of his life with him, and neither of those things is really all that new, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth celebrating. 

**Author's Note:**

> stephen sondheim said "stop worrying if your vision is new" and i've used that as license to write a hundred different versions of the same story. i don't know about y'all but i, personally, love it when stories are dependable! 
> 
> unbeta'd, all mistakes are my own
> 
> i'm lottswrites on tumblr~


End file.
